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HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

The main alternative is a tracker mortgage. In this case, you will benefit as soon as the Bank of England acts. With a tracker, your rate is set at a fixed level above the 0.5 per cent base rate.

So if the base rate falls by 0.25 percentage points, so will your tracker. Equally, however, if the base rate rises, so will your monthly repayments.

In the past, tracker mortgages were cheaper than fixed rates but, these days, the difference is tiny.

HSBC offers the lowest fixed rate, charging 0.99 per cent for two years with a £1,499 fee. The repayments work out at £564.63 a month on the typical £150,000 mortgage and you will need a 35 pc deposit.

Santander’s 1.39 per cent two-year tracker would cost you £592.18 a month. It has a £995 fee and is on offer to borrowers with a 40 per cent deposit.

If base rate fell from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent, the Santander tracker would still be £10 a month more expensive than the HSBC deal, costing £564.63 a month.

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There is a chance you could save money on a longer-term tracker. Yorkshire Building Society’s 2.22 pc five-year fixed rate costs £651.97 a month on a £150,000 loan. It has a £975 fee and you would need to have a deposit of 25 pc.

Compare this to HSBC’s 2.39 per cent lifetime tracker, which has a £999 fee. Here the repayments are £664.65 a month — £12.68 more expensive than Yorkshire’s fixed rate.

However, if base rate fell to 0.25 per cent the monthly repayments would be £6 a month cheaper than the fixed deal.

All in all, locking into a top rate now looks like the smarter move. Even seasoned economists admit that it is hard to be certain what will happen to the UK economy as we enter uncharted waters after voting to exit the EU.

David Hollingworth, of broker London & Country, says: ‘There is very little benefit of taking out a tracker at the moment as fixed rates are so cheap.

‘Even if base rate does fall, I would expect the majority of people to take out a fixed-rate over a tracker because of the certainty they offer in terms of monthly repayments.’

The question remaining is how long should you fix for?

The cheapest products on offer are two-year fixed rates. HSBC’s 0.99 per cent is cheapest for those with large deposits.

If you have a 25 per cent deposit, Post Office charges 1.93 per cent with no upfront fees. Those with a 10 per cent deposit, meanwhile, can get a 1.98 per cent rate from Yorkshire BS with a £1,475 fee.

Many brokers recommend taking out a five or ten-year fix just in case mortgage rates are higher in a few years’ time.

On its five-year deals, HSBC offers the top rate for those with a 35 per cent deposit, charging 1.99 per cent with a £1,499 fee.

With a 25 per cent deposit you can get Yorkshire BS’s 2.22 per cent deal which has a £975 fee. With a 10 per cent deposit the best is Post Office’s 2.94 per cent with a £995 fee.

The top ten-year rate is TSB’s 2.89 per cent if you have a 40 per cent deposit. The fee is £995.

Remember, fixing for such a long time means you are locked in. Most lenders charge eye-watering penalties if you want to repay the loan early, ranging from 1 per cent to 7 per cent of the original loan.